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Abstract
In the context of art history, the rise and fall of linear perspective in painting is typically discussed as a framework for studying changes in artistic styles. This essay aims to re-examine the modes of thinking behind artistic practice between the sixteenth and twenty-first centuries, investigating how shifts in ways of thinking have been applied to artistic creation and noting that the rise and decline of linear perspective are aligned with changes in philosophical thinking in the corresponding periods. Furthermore, cybernetics has penetrated contemporary artistic creation as a further current in organic thinking. The current tendency in contemporary Chinese art is towards technological art, which is based on a cybernetic mindset rather than traditional Chinese art. Focusing on linear perspective in artworks, I compare the relationship between linear perspective, mechanism, and organicism during the same period, in the hope of bringing an appreciation of the sublime back into the work of art, whilst also, countering the sinking homogeneous tendencies of technological systems established by cybernetics.
Acknowledgements
The author wishes to express his thanks to the peer reviewers for their detailed and insightful comments; any errors remain his own. The author also wishes to express his gratitude to Dr George Lau, Dr Claudia Milburn and Ms Anna Szulfer at World Art for their assistance, especially during this disruptive pandemic period.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Data availability statement
The authors confirm that the data supporting the findings of this study are available within the article.
Notes
1 The process of mathematization is, in fact, a process of idealization, a process in which natural entities are abstracted into mathematical linguistics and quantitatively comprehended. The mathematization of nature implies a new way of understanding nature.
2 In painting, the relationship between the front and back of different objects needs to be set off by light and dark relationships in addition to obstructions. Generally speaking, objects in front are more lighted, whilst those behind are less lighted.
3 The mechanism was the central epistemology and way of thinking about understanding nature in Western Europe in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Mechanistic systems are guaranteed to be stable by their internal linear causality. For example, seventeenth-century clocks were driven by gears of different sizes and clockwork. If one of the gears failed, then the whole system would stop. In other words, the mechanical systems of the time could not tackle such contingencies or contradictions.
4 At the National People's Congress of the People's Republic of China in 2022, Fan Di’an, Dean of the Central Academy of Fine Arts, proposed a proposition on strengthening the disciplinary construction of science and technology art and encouraging its development in key universities.
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Renjie Li
Renjie Li studied oil painting at the Fine Arts & Calligraphy College, Sichuan Normal University and Creative Media at the School of Creative Media, City University of Hong Kong, where he received his Master's degree with Distinction. His oil painting Intertwining was selected for the World: Contemporary Chinese Art Exhibition (2021), funded and curated by the Moscow Artists International Art Foundation, Chinese Art Yearbook and Beijing Sheng Shi Ge Ya Art Culture. Intertwining was also published in Fine Arts Literature (2021).